Image: Peter Berko (2017)
The 2024–2025 ASCA Cities seminar will approach the city through the lens of play. Taking up the theme of ‘Playable Cities’, we are interested in how play functions both as a concept and method in representing, designing and building the urban. In the first session on Friday 14 Feb. 2025, 3-5pm in room 0.16 (E-lab), Turfdraagsterpad 9, Amsterdam, we will engage with three texts that approach play from different theoretical perspectives.
Readings
Sicart, M. 2014. Play Matters. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1-34.
Graeber, D., and N. Dubrovsky. 2025. The City of Play. In Cities Made Differently. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 24-29.
Davies, H., Hjorth, L., & Lammes, S. (2024). Cities as Playgrounds/Playgrounds as Cities: Rethinking Urban Play, Civic Engagement, and Socio-spatiality. Space and Culture 27(2), 132-136.
The readings can also be accessed via this link.
Following Sessions:
Fri. 21 Feb. 2025: Ekim Tan (Play the City), ““, Time: 3-5pm, Location: room 0.16 (E-lab), BG1 Media Studies, Turfdraagsterpad 9, Amsterdam, Time: 3-5pm.
Fri. 15 Mar. 2025: Sam Hind (Manchester University), “Playing Domains: Competition in Machine Vision Challenges”, Time: 3-5pm, Location: room 0.16 (E-lab), BG1 Media Studies, Turfdraagsterpad 9, Amsterdam, Time: 3-5pm.
Fri. 25 Apr. 2025: Paul O’Connor (University of Exeter), “Play through the Grey Prism: Addressing Chromatic Leisure in Cities“, Time: 3-5pm, Location: room 0.16 (E-lab), BG1 Media Studies, Turfdraagsterpad 9, Amsterdam.
Fri 16 May 2025: Christoph Borbach and Max Kanderske (University of Siegen), “Playful Resistance: Sensor-Counter Practices in Urban Environments”,Time: 3-5pm, Location: room 0.16 (E-lab), BG1 Media Studies, Turfdraagsterpad 9, Amsterdam.
Co-organized by Carolyn Birdsall, Linda Kopitz and Alex Gekker. For more information and registration, please contact Linda Kopitz (l.kopitz@uva.nl)